The present invention relates to magazines for carrying and/or storing projectiles.
The modern war is often a war of logistics where the winner is determined by the ability to efficiently transport men and material. Accordingly, it is essential to optimize the conveyance of ammunition such as projectiles and shells.
For simplicity, "projectiles" as used herein shall be considered to include shells, missiles, torpedoes, bombs, and more generally ammunition.
The storage or transportation of projectiles generally requires a balancing between two conflicting considerations. On the one hand, the projectiles should be stored such that it is easy to remove them from their storage mechanism as required for usage of the projectile. On the other hand, the projectiles must be stored such that they are secure in their storage arrangement and will not be jarred loose by nearby explosions or while being transported along a bumpy road. Generally, the more secure a projectile is from accidental dislodgement, the more time-consuming it is to remove the projectile from its storage facility.
One common method for transportation and storage of projectiles is by use of a wooden pallet. The pallet is normally configured in two rows of four projectiles. The wooden pallet consists of upper and lower wood laminates held together with steel banding. The bases of the projectiles rest on the lower wood laminate board and the nose protrudes through holes drilled in the top wood laminate board.
The use of wooden pallets is subject to numerous disadvantages. For one thing, the steel banding must be cut or otherwise removed to allow access to all of the projectiles, this in turn necessitating the rebanding of the wooden pallet if the projectiles are to be resecured. Further, the pallet does not protect the projectiles from incidental mechanical damage or from a contaminated environment (storage under high humidity or other harsh conditions or nuclear, biological, or chemical agents). Accordingly, the projectiles require periodic maintenance at considerable expense or likewise expensive decontamination where enemy action has resulted in nuclear, biological, or chemical agents contaminating the outside of the projectiles. In order to maintain or decontaminate the projectiles, the pallet must be broken apart. The projectiles must then be treated to protect them from environmental deterioration and/or to decontaminate them. The projectiles must then be replaced upon the pallet and the upper and lower boards of the pallet must be rebanded together. A further disadvantage of the wooden pallet method is that the projectiles must be removed from the pallets in order to allow them to be readied for usage by placement within an ammunition resupply vehicle such as that disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,441 entitled "Field Artillary Ammunition Support Vehicle" issued on Dec. 2, 1980 to John Turner, Richard A. Koster, and Seymour Bassman, and assigned to the assignee of the present application.
Some of the prior art problems with storage and transportation of projectiles have been overcome by the Projectile Lock Assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,528, issued Aug. 17, 1982 to Ayyala Perisastry, Richard A. Vishe, and Peter J. Hoet. The projectile lock assembly disclosed in that patent, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, uses a rack having a plurality of parallel cylindrical tubes. A number of locking assemblies are mounted along each of the tubes and used for individually locking projectiles within the associated tube.
Although the projectile lock assembly of the Perisastry et al patent is extremely useful in providing a storage rack for projectiles, its structure is sufficiently complex as to make it most practical under conditions where projectiles must be separately removed from a storage rack. That is, it is quite useful in an ammunition resupply vehicle where projectiles must be normally secured during the vehicle's movement and selectively removed from projectile storage zones as necessary for conveyance to a self propelled howitzer or other weapon. However, the expense and complexities of the locking structure generally would preclude its use for transportation of projectiles except where individual projectile access is required (i.e., at or near the battlefront where projectiles are fused and/or loaded into weapons).
As will be readily appreciated, the transfer of projectiles from a wooden pallet to the projectile rack and lock assembly as disclosed in the Perisastry et al patent adds a time consuming step to the overall process of most efficiently getting projectiles from the factories and/or long term storage depots to the racks from which the projectiles may be stored and conveyed under battlefield conditions.